All Downhill For ‘Herminator’ Austria’s Latest Hero Is Top Man On The Mountain

Down at a wooden chalet called Austria House, they brought out softball-sized apples covered in corporate logos. They brought out skis and bindings that bent like bananas. They even trotted out three-dozen Olympic athletes who wore goofy grins and carried around skis like lumber.

And finally, they brought out the Herminator.

This is what it’s like to be the planet’s top ski-racer, Hermann Maier of Austria.

He’s a skiing phenomenon and a lounge act, caught up in the wildest, weirdest tale to hit the ski circuit in years. The ex-bricklayer is the unbeatable, unstoppable man of the mountain.

And in the Super Bowl on Snow, the men’s downhill at the Winter Olympics, Maier is among the favorites for gold.

The downhill is due to be broadcast today in the United States. And for many in America, it will be the first chance to see the European star and experience, first-hand, Hermania.

The man is locked in a dream season that has seen him win 10 races, including five in January, virtually sewing up the overall World Cup title.

Besides the downhill, Maier will be a threat in the giant slalom, the Super-G and the combined, bidding to become the first Alpine skier since Jean-Claude Killy in 1968 to win three golds at an Olympics.

“It’s wonderful now,” he said. “It’s the right moment.”

A smile broke across his face and his blue eyes darted, as photographers and reporters encircled him.

But Maier wouldn’t budge. He is built like a pillar - 5 feet 10 and nearly 200 pounds.

And he has to withstand a lot of pressure. Austria has fallen head over heels for its new skiing star. The media there has tagged him with nicknames like “Das Monster”, “Alien” and “Herminator.” His every move on a slope is watched and dissected.

“I am not a monster,” he said. “I am Hermann Maier. Maybe I am the Herminator.”

The stresses of becoming an Austrian ski hero were so great that Maier excused himself from the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuhel, the country’s premier downhill event. His excuse was inflammation of the skin on his shins.

The reality was, Austria’s skiing coaches didn’t want to burn out their brightest star in an Olympic season.

“Sure, I’m a little bit nervous,” Maier said. “But the Olympics are races like any other.”

Maier is skiing’s natural, virtually coming out of nowhere to dominate his sport. Raised 50 miles south of Salzburg in an Alpine village named Reitdorf, his talent was obvious early and he appeared to have a bright ski-racing career ahead of him until he sprouted nearly a foot in less than a year. By 15, chronic knee pain forced him to quit and select a trade.

He became a bricklayer.

For seven years, Maier picked up a trowel and went off to work. He liked it.

“Every building is my favorite,” he said.

But skiing was his obsession. He followed the exploits of Austria’s explosive national team. And he decided to try and match them, but on his own time. He got back onto the slopes, working as a part-time ski instructor at his father’s ski school in Flachau.

When Tommy Moe of the United States won the 1994 Olympic downhill gold, Maier was on a mountain in Flachau, giving a ski lesson.

He stuck to his routine. And his dream. In the summer, he handled the bricks. In the winter, he handled the snow.

“I was not so unhappy,” he said. “I looked at other racers. I tried everything to come back. And now, I am here.”

He copied the slashing style of Italy’s irrepressible Alberto Tomba, carving the straightest lines down the mountain in a high-speed, high-risk quest to gobble up ground and cut his times.

Maier entered just about any local race he could, trying to strut his stuff and earn the attention of Austria’s national coaching staff, which has a mountain of terrific skiers to choose from.

On Jan. 6, 1996, Maier was a “forerunner” at a World Cup giant slalom in Flachau, creating a route for the official competitors to follow. He was so fast, he earned his ticket out of the boondocks.

Now, he owns the World Cup circuit.

“Hermann Maier is on fire,” Moe said. “He is raising skiing to a whole other level.”